Why don’t UK Muslims fear more terrorist attacks? Why don’t they concentrate on rooting out jihad terrorists from their ranks? If they did, they would find a great deal less to fear from any backlash. From AP, with thanks to Anthony.
Thousands of Muslims crowded London mosques for Friday prayers, condemning the bombings, but also wary they could be made scapegoats and fearful of reprisals against their growing and vibrant community.
At the East London Mosque, near the site of one of Thursday’s attacks, an imam told the 8,000 worshippers to be “confident in our identity” as part of London’s multicultural fabric.
The mosque said it had received hate e-mails and a telephone threat to disrupt Friday prayers. A few police officers stood outside during the prayers, which ended peacefully.
Outside, some Muslims said the attacks had made them more cautious on the streets, but others said they were secure in their identity as Londoners confident of the city’s tolerant traditions.
“It will have some impact on people. But this is London, a cosmopolitan city,” said student Ali Ayubi. “Maybe after one or two months it will go back to normal.”
A related story, “Arson suspected in mosque fire” from Al Jazeera.net, with thanks to Skeet Street.
Suspected arsonists have set a mosque in northwest England on fire, police said.
Police said on Saturday that a man living in a flat above the Shahjalal Mosque, which is part of an Islamic centre in Birkenhead, was treated for smoke inhalation, but there were no other injuries.
The mosque door was burnt and there was some smoke damage inside, a Merseyside police spokesman said. He declined to comment on reports that a petrol bomb was used.
The attack comes two days after bombings in central London killed more than 50.
Mosque chairman Abdul Munim said: “What happened here was a dreadful act that could have been far worse had it not been for the fast actions of the police, fire and ambulance services.”
Police said they were hunting two white men in their early 20s seen in the area just before the incident…
US mosque incident
In a separate incident in the US, someone tried to set fire to a mosque in Bloomington, Indiana, in the early hours of Saturday.
A rock was thrown through a window, then a flammable liquid was poured into the building and ignited, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said.
A burned Quran was found outside the mosque.
FBI Special Agent, Wendy Osborne, said agents and members of a Joint Terrorism Task Force were investigating it as a hate crime.